Willie Mays: Remembering the Legend’s Return to the Polo Grounds

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Sandy Koufax once said of Willie Mays, who died on June 18, 2024 at the age of 93, “He was probably the best all-around ballplayer when you take everything into consideration. It seemed like that Willie never made a mistake.”

That glowing assessment from the legendary Dodgers pitcher gives you a sense of what fans of the New York Giants lost when the team moved to San Francisco in 1958, taking their 27-year-old star with them. It also tells you why it might have been a big deal when, five seasons later, the Say Hey Kid returned to play in New York for the first time. And not only was he back in the city, but he would once again be patrolling centerfield in the Polo Grounds, which was the former home of the Giants. The Polo Grounds was being used by New York’s new team, the Mets, for two seasons while they waited for their own stadium to be built.

Mays had burnished his legend at the Polo Grounds, winning baseball’s MVP award in 1954 and making perhaps the most famous defensive play in baseball history there, with his seemingly no-look, over-the-shoulder catch in the 1954 World Series on a ball hit by Vic Wertz into the stadium’s unusually deep centerfield.

Here’s how LIFE reported on Mays’ return in its June 15, 1962 issue:

“It’s a good feeling,” said Willie Mays, the great centerfielder, coming back to play again in the Polo Grounds. He had been an institution there before the Giants moved from New York to San Francisco almost five years ago. Now the fans came out to cheer both for him and their new home team, the Mets. Doffing his cap, Willie went to work; 3 homers, 6 hits, 6 RBIs in four games, all won by the Giants.

That paragraph, and one photo of Mays acknowledging the fans, was the extent of LIFE’s coverage in the magazine. But the full set of images by Arthur Rickerby is a treasure trove, capturing the spirit of Mays’ return, and occasionally using panoramic photography to do so. This was a moment of appreciation for a beloved figure who was not just one of the game’s all-time greats but who would famously played stickball with the local kids in the streets of Harlem. And Mays was no oldies’ act in 1962. He was still in his prime—three years later, in 1965, he would win his second MVP award.

And while today the returns of sports stars to play their old arenas and stadiums can stir up mixed feelings—in this era of free agency and trade demands, the top players usually leave because they want to—there was none of that here. Willie Mays didn’t leave so much as he was carried away. Thus could fans come to the park with signs that read “Bring Willie Back” and “Mays for Governor” and show nothing but unabashed affection for a returning hero.

Click here for more photos of Willie Mays from the LIFE archives.

Willie Mays left the visitor’s clubhouse to take the field at the Polo Grounds as he returned to his former home stadium to take on the New York Mets, 1962.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fans welcomed Willie Mays in his return to the Polo Grounds for the first time as the San Francisco Giants took on the New York Mets, 1962.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fans welcomed Willie Mays in his return to the Polo Grounds for the first time as the San Francisco Giants took on the New York Mets, 1962.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants returned to the Polo Grounds, his former home field, to face the Mets in 1962.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

GIANTS RETURN TO POLO GROUNDS

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants returned to the Polo Grounds, his former home field, to face the Mets in 1962.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Willie Mays spoke with a New York Mets player during Mays’ return to the Polo Grounds as a member of the San Francisco Giants, 1962.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mets manager Casey Stengel during the Giants-Mets series that brought Willie Mays back to the Polo Grounds for the first time, 1962.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Willie Mays returned to the Polo Grounds for the first time as the San Francisco Giants took on the New York Mets, 1962.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Willie Mays returned to the Polo Grounds for the first time as the San Francisco Giants took on the New York Mets, 1962.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Willie Mays returned to the Polo Grounds for the first time as the San Francisco Giants took on the New York Mets, 1962.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Willie Mays returned to the Polo Grounds for the first time as the San Francisco Giants took on the New York Mets, 1962.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Willie Mays returned to the Polo Grounds for the first time as the San Francisco Giants took on the New York Mets, 1962.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Willie Mays returned to the Polo Grounds for the first time as the San Francisco Giants took on the New York Mets, 1962.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Willie Mays returned to the Polo Grounds for the first time as the San Francisco Giants took on the New York Mets, 1962.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Willie Mays returned to the Polo Grounds for the first time as the San Francisco Giants took on the New York Mets, 1962.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fans welcomed Willie Mays in his return to the Polo Grounds for the first time as the San Francisco Giants took on the New York Mets, 1962.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fans welcomed Willie Mays in his return to the Polo Grounds for the first time as the San Francisco Giants took on the New York Mets, 1962.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Willie Mays returned to the Polo Grounds for the first time as the San Francisco Giants took on the New York Mets, 1962.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Willie Mays returned to the Polo Grounds for the first time as the San Francisco Giants took on the New York Mets, 1962.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes From the 1960 Actor’s Strike That Was Led by Ronald Reagan

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In the summer of 2023 Hollywood’s actors and writers are both on strike—the first time that has happened since 1960. The modern strike is all about the changes to the entertainment business being wrought by streaming services and artificial intelligence, and the 1960 strike was also inspired by new technology—specifically, television. Movies that had originally shown only in theaters were now having their television rights sold, and actors and writers wanted in on the action. The writers struck first, with the actor’s joining later, just like in 2023.

LIFE’s coverage of the 1960 strike discussed the issues at hand but was chiefly taken by the spectacle of Hollywood coming to a halt. Here’s how LIFE opened it’s coverage in its issue of March 21, 1960:

Nightmares filled the nation’s dream factories. In movie studios everywhere there was a frenzied scurrying to finish films before the big actor’s strike began. Casts worked almost around the clock on seven-day weeks, catching naps in dressing rooms and on sets. Directors had two scenes shot at once to speed things up. … Then the strike that no one believed would really happen—movies after all are devoted to happy endings—did happen. The cameras stopped. And a kind of panic seized Hollywood.

The photos, mostly by Ralph Crane, depict the drama both in negotiations and on the set, chronicling movies in their last moments of production. A few capture the poetry of Hollywood gone quiet, including a desolate but beautiful photo of a worker watering a patch of indoor lawn on an otherwise empty Paramount Studios set, tending the plot while waiting for the stars to return.

Viewed all these years later, perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the strike is that it was led by Ronald Reagan. He was president of the Screen Actor’s Guild back then, and he would of course go on to serve as President of the United States. While in the Oval Office this former strike leader was no friend to labor. In 1981, his first year as president, the nation’s air traffic controllers went on strike, and he responded by having the 11,000 striking workers fired in what is seen as a pivotal moment in the decline of unions.

In 1960 the actor’s portion of the strike lasted about a month before all sides made a deal was made and everyone was back to making movies.

Screen Actors Guild president Ronald Reagan answered questions about the progress of strike negotiations, 1960.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ronald Reagan, to the left in a bowtie, leads a meeting of the Screen Actor’s Guild, 1960. James Garner is the third to Reagan’s left, and Dana Andrews also sits nearby.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ronald Reagan, president of the Screen Actors Guild, answered questions during their strike, 1960.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ronald Reagan, president of the Screen Actor’s Guild, during the union’s strike, 1960.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actor James Cagney in midst of strike negotiations, 1960.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from the Screen Actor’s Guild strike of 1960, Los Angeles.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A film crew frantically trying to finish its work on “The Dark at the Top of the Stairs” before the start of an actor’s strike, 1960.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A crew frantically trying to finish work on the film “The Dark at the Top of the Stairs” before the start of an actor’s strike, 1960.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Robert Preston and Dorothy McGuire in a scene from movie Dark at the Top of the Stairs, which rushed to finish production before the 1960 actor’s strike.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fred Astaire kissing Lilli Palmer in a scene from the film The Pleasure of his Company, 1960; the movie was one of those whose filming was interrupted by the actor’s strike.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Charles Ruggles and Debbie Reynolds clowning on set after actor’s strike halted shooting of The ‘Pleasure of His Company, 1960.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fred Astaire in his dressing room, talking to co-star Debbie Reynolds, after the studio where they were filming The Pleasure of His Company, was shut down by the strike called by the Screen Actors Guild in 1960. Astaire was against the strike, saying “It is violently wrong to interrupt production in the middle.”

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The clapboard was raised in front of actress Suzi Carnell during the shooting of Studs Lonigan in L.A.’s Griffith Park before the actor’s strike, 1960.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Slapstick comic and bit player Snub Pollard (foreground) took a lunch break during the filming of Studs Lonigan with the actor’s strike looming, 1960.

.Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actors Dennis Morgan, Jimmy Brown and Jack Carson on a golf outing during the actor’s strike of 1960.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The deserted back lot at Fox studios during the actors’ strike, 1960.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dick Webb watered an indoor lawn on a set at Paramount Studios during shutdown caused by SAG strike, 1960.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The New Crew: Women Testing Weapons During World War II

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Maryland’s Aberdeen Proving Ground opened in 1917 and today is the military’s oldest weapons-testing facility in the United States. It’s a big operation. At its peak in World War II, Aberdeen had housing for more than 27,000, and today it still employs more then 12,000 people.

Through its first decades Aberdeen was a man’s world. But that changed during World War II. LIFE covered extensively the real-life Rosie the Riveters who moved into industrial jobs during that era, and the women who became weapons-testers for the first time in Aberdeen were part of that same phenomenon.

The story in LIFE’s Feb. 1, 1943 issue described how the soldiers who once worked the testing grounds but had been deployed overseas were at first replaced by male civilians. Then “as the draft hit hard, the civilians began to disappear and in their place came thousands of women.”

And who were these women?

The women come from everywhere. Many have husbands in the Army. Others have husbands who also work at Aberdeen. They wear bright-colored slacks, and their “firing fronts” are a rippling blend of pink. blue and orange, mixed with white and black powder from the guns. They serve on crews of all weapons up to the 90-mm A.A.’s. [anti-aircraft guns]. They handle highly technical instruments. They drive trucks, act as bicycle messengers, swab and clean vehicles. A few of them have even been tested as tank drivers, but that work, with its physical bruises, is still a little too tough for them.

The declaration of that last sentence reflected a time when women were making their first inroads to military service. In 1942 the WACs had just come into being (see LIFE’s coverage of the first WACs here) and the change in attitudes about what roles women could play was slow and incremental. It was not until 2015 that the Department of Defense opened all military occupations and positions to women.

The photographs by Myron Davis and Bernard Hoffman capture a world in transition. Some pictures indulge in the novelty of the moment—such as the photo of a woman who looks like a schoolmarm set up behind the sites of a machine gun with an ammunition belt being fed through it. But in other photos the women, such as Mrs. Ruby Barnett, a grandmother who had never fired a gun before coming to work at Aberdeen, look right at home in their new jobs. Those pictures seem to ask the question about the women taking on this new line of work: Well, why not?

A woman tested a 30 caliber machine gun at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, 1942.

Bernard Hoffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Women loaded shells into an anti-aircraft gun at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, 1942.

Myron Davis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A group of men and women tested a 90 mm anti-aircraft gun at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland, 1942.

Bernard Hoffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Viola Testerman carried a 41-pound shell at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, 1942.

Bernard Hoffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Betty Wainwright and Opal Burchette fed cartridges into magazines at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, 1942.

Bernard Hoffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Nealie Bare at work at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, 1942. Here she hammered a plug into a test shell to keep the shell’s sand from running out.

Bernard Hoffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mrs. Ruby Barnett, a grandmother, had never fired a gun before coming to work at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland during World War II.

Bernard Hoffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mrs. Ruby Barnett at work at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, 1942.

Myron Davis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mrs. Ruby Barnett was among the women who tested artillery at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, 1942.

Myron Davis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mrs. Ruby Barnett, a grandmother, tested a carbine at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, 1942.

Bernard Hoffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Women fired machine guns at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, 1942.

Myron Davis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Women tested machine guns at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, 1942.

Myron Davis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A woman loaded a bullet aircraft cannon at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, 1942.

Myron Davis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A women tested a 20 millimeter aircraft cannon at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, 1942.

Myron Davis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Aerial view of testing range at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, 1942.

Bernard Hoffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

That Time We Were Promised Jet Packs

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The idea that we would all be flying around with jet packs one day has enough cultural currency that a Scottish indie rock band could call itself We Were Promised Jet Packs with no further explanation needed. It’s a shorthand way of saying that the future we now inhabit isn’t what we once imagined it would be.

But was there ever actually a promise about jet packs in the first place?

The idea of a jet pack was first hatched in 1919, about sixteen years after the first flight of the Orville Brothers, when a Russian inventor drew up a design that was never actually built. The idea then progressed in fits and starts, inching closer to a working prototype around 1960.

That prototype, known as the Rocket Belt, was presented to readers of LIFE in its June 18, 1961 issue, when a picture by Ed Clark showed Harold Graham making the first public untethered flight. The sight of a man soaring through the air was more than enough to capture the imagination—though the text might have kept expectations closer to Earth. The caption explained that the Graham could not go up very high, move all that fast or stay airborne for very long:

At an altitude of 15 feet, a ground speed of 10 knots, Bell Engineer Harold Graham flew gently above a track without benefit of airplane. Graham was strapped to a hydrogen-peroxide-fueled rocket which will keep a man up half a minute through its jets of invisible steam. The Army, which financed it, hopes it will someday make foot soldiers all look like Buck Rogers.

The last line of that text is, in retrospect, revealing. The Army funded the development of jet packs for a specific military use, rather than public consumption. You could argue that we were never really promised jet packs.

But pictures can make promises more powerful than words, and the sight of Graham in midair would be enough to ignite jetpack dreams—and not unreasonably. Technology tends to improve exponentially, after all. The first computers took up entire rooms, and now devices that are more powerful slip easily into our pockets. So if in 1961 Harold Graham was going aloft for 30 seconds, shouldn’t it mean that in a few decades people would be jet-packing themselves from, say, New York City to the Hamptons?

But the jet packs have proved to be a stubborn exception. The reports on their continuing development, while full of enthusiasm, still talk about the packs as having niche uses for the military and for rescue workers. The reason that jet packs still don’t make sense for everyday consumers is the weight of the fuel. The amount needed to sustain a trip of more than a couple minutes would prevent it from ever getting off the ground.

For now. But who knows, maybe one day….

Bell engineer Harold Graham demonstrating the Rocket Belt jet pack at Ft. Bragg, 1961.

Ed Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bell engineer Harold Graham demonstrating the Rocket Belt jet pack at Ft. Bragg, 1961.

Ed Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bell engineer Harold Graham demonstrating the Rocket Belt jet pack at Ft. Bragg, 1961.

Ed Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bell engineer Harold Graham demonstrating the Rocket Belt jet pack at Ft. Bragg, 1961.

Ed Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bell engineer Harold Graham demonstrating the Rocket Belt jet pack at Ft. Bragg, 1961.

Ed Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bell engineer Harold Graham demonstrating the Rocket Belt jet pack at Ft. Bragg, 1961.

Ed Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bell engineer Harold Graham demonstrating the Rocket Belt jet pack at Ft. Bragg, 1961.

Ed Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bell engineer Harold Graham demonstrating the Rocket Belt jet pack at Ft. Bragg, 1961.

Ed Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bell engineer Harold Graham demonstrating the Rocket Belt jet pack at Ft. Bragg, 1961.

Ed Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Aircraft Carrier Summer: All Hands on Deck

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The aircraft carrier known as the U.S.S. Hornet has a storied history. The version you see in these photos began its journey in 1943, and was named in honor of a previous Hornet that was sunk in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands during the Guadalcanal campaign of World War II. This ship took the previous Hornet’s place in the Pacific theater, eventually launching the first carrier strikes on Japan. After Japan’s formal surrender, the Hornet ferried veterans of the Pacific War home to California.

In the late 1960s the warship landed a glamorous assignment when it used in the recovery operations for astronauts who had returned from the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 missions and needed to be pulled from the ocean. It was in 1969, during its astronaut-rescue period and in its final year of service, that LIFE photographer Lynn Pelham traveled on the Hornet and documented how the crew spent its leisure time.

The crew seemed to be having a ball, at least some of the time. Splash pools, volleyball games, drum kits, basking in the sun, general horseplay. With activities like these, who needs shore leave?

Well, probably they all did, and desperately. In those days, aircraft carriers didn’t even have their own Starbucks and gyms and other amenities found aboard their modern counterparts.

The Hornet was decommissioned in 1970 and now serves as a museum in Alameda, California.

The crew of the USS Hornet enjoying some down time, 1969.

Lynn Pelham/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Crew members of the U.S.S. Hornet aircraft carrier, 1969.

Lynn Pelham/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Crew members of the U.S.S. Hornet aircraft carrier, 1969.

Lynn Pelham/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Life aboard the U.S.S. Hornet aircraft carrier, 1969.

Lynn Pelham/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Crewmen of the U.S.S. Hornet, 1969.

Lynn Pelham/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Life aboard the U.S.S. Hornet aircraft carrier, 1969.

Lynn Pelham/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Crew members play volleyball aboard the U.S.S. Hornet aircraft carrier, 1969.

Lynn Pelham/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Volleyball aboard the U.S.S. Hornet, 1969.

Lynn Pelham/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The crew of the U.S.S. Hornet aircraft carrier, 1969.

Lynn Pelham/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Crew members sunbathing on the U.S.S. Hornet, 1969.

Lynn Pelham/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Life aboard the U.S.S. Hornet aircraft carrier, 1969.

Lynn Pelham/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Life aboard the U.S.S. Hornet aircraft carrier, 1969.

Lynn Pelham/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Front view of U.S.S. Hornet, 1969.

Lynn Pelham/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The L.A. Coliseum at 100: Remembering its Bizarre Baseball Years

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The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which opened in 1923, has been home to a dizzying array of events in its 100 years of operation. The original main tenant was the USC college football team, but the stadium has also hosted Super Bowls, Olympics, UCLA football, Rams and Raiders football, political speeches and rock concerts.

Perhaps the oddest-fitting of all its tenants was the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958, but the team’s stadium would not be ready for occupancy until 1962. So for four years the Dodgers did the best they could in the enormous Coliseum.

The photos show the problem; playing baseball in the Coliseum meant sticking a diamond into the middle of an oval. We see fans with binoculars, straining to follow the action on the far-away field. Remember that this was before spectators could watch replays on giant video boards at the stadium. It its coverage of the first Dodgers game in their new home in its April 28, 1958 issue, LIFE wryly noted: “In the cavernous coliseum many had trouble seeing the game at all. But many came only to be seen.”

Another oddity was that the left-field fence was a very short 250 feet down the line. (Since then baseball has established rules for new stadiums that require a minimum distance of 325 feet). A 40-foot screen was erected to keep down the number of home runs, but the complaints from the players were many. Dodgers star pitcher Don Drysdale commented, “It’s nothing but a sideshow. Who feels like playing baseball in this place?”

Most of the photos in this story are by Leonard McCombe and Allan Grant, and come from the Dodgers first home games in 1958, played against the San Francisco Giants, who had also just moved from New York to California. A couple other photos are by Ralph Crane amd come from 1959 World Series, when the Dodgers defeated the Chicago White Sox in six games—though again the pictures, by Ralph Crane, emphasized the odd setting more than the on-the-field action.

With a seating capacity of more than 90,000, the Coliseum remains the largest stadium ever to serve as the home field for a major league team. In 1967 it would host the first Super Bowl, between Green Bay and Kansas City. In 2028 the Coliseum will host its third Olympics.

A vendor outside the first game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, California, 1958

Television actress Juli Reding spoke with Dodgers outfielder Elmer Valo during the first home game at the Los Angeles Coliseum, 1958.

Leonard McCombe/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants during the Dodgers’ first home game at the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California, 1958

Leonard McCombe/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants during the Dodgers’ first home game at the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California, 1958

Leonard McCombe/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scene from the first home game for the Dodgers at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scene from the first home game for the Dodgers at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scene from the first home game for the Dodgers at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scene from the first home game for the Dodgers at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dodgers fans needed binoculars to follow the action in the cavernous Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where the team played for four seasons after moving from Brooklyn, 1958.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Dodgers home game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where the team played for four seasons after moving from Brooklyn, 1958.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dodgers fans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum cheer the team in in their first home game after moving from Brooklyn, 1958.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dodgers fans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum cheer the team in in their first home game after moving from Brooklyn, 1958.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dodgers during the team’s first home game at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scene from the first home game for the Dodgers at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.

Allan Grant//Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A crowd watching the Dodgers’ first home game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.

Leonard McCombe/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fans at the Dodgers’ first home game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.

Leonard McCombe/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Dodgers’ first home game at Los Angeles Coliseum, 1958.

Leonard McCombe/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The crowd at Los Angeles Coliseum for the first game between the L.A. Dodgers and San Francisco Giants in Los Angeles, 1958.

Leonard McCombe/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

People watched the first Dodgers home game at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.

Leonard McCombe/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Game 3 of the 1959 World Series between the White Sox and the Dodgers at L.A. Memorial Coliseum, 1959.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shuttetstock

The 1959 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers, at L.A. Memorial Coliseum.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shuttetstock

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